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Chris Bell
- Jan 13
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 18
Table of Contents
Background
Mission
Relevant Experience
Notable Positions & Focus Areas
Considerations for Voters
Disclaimer: The information below summarizes publicly available information. “Considerations for voters” are intended to highlight relevant strengths, gaps, or strategic factors, not to advocate for or against any candidate.
Chris Bell Texas Governor
“Nowhere is the corruption on more vivid display than the office of our governor, Greg Abbott. It’s about the pay-to-play culture that has engulfed almost every aspect of our state government.
Enough is enough. Texans deserve better.”
Candidate Overview
Background
Former journalist
Attorney
Born in Abilene. Raised in Dallas.
Mission:
To bring integrity to state leadership, strengthen Texas schools, expand healthcare, and help write a new chapter in our history.
Relevant Experience
Former U.S. House of Representative for Congressional District 25
Former Houston city council member
In Congress, he founded the bipartisan Port Security Caucus to strengthen Texas’s vital ports
He filed an ethics complaint in 2004 against Tom DeLay, exposing corruption and ending a 7-year bipartisan silence on Congressional ethics.
Notable Positions & Focus Areas
Protect reproductive rights while ensuring that mothers have access to the healthcare and support they need
Target corruption
Improve affordability, livability and opportunity
Protect public school kids and public school teachers
Considerations for Voters
Bell ran for Governor in 2006, but lost to Rick Perry.
He ran in the 2020 Democratic Primary to unseat John Cornyn.
Positions
Democratic Values
Stance:
Frames governance around individual rights, institutional accountability, and ethical use of power, with a clear emphasis on restraining corruption and political overreach.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Protect individual reproductive rights and bodily autonomy
Oppose government intrusion into personal medical decisions
Expose and confront corruption in public office
Approach to Increasing Participation:
Not explicitly addressed in available materials
Democratic Norms & Threats Identified:
Political corruption and lack of accountability
Government overreach into personal and medical decision-making
Regulatory capture by powerful industries
Notable Emphasis:
Ethics enforcement and institutional integrity
Rights-based governance over ideological control
Healthcare
Stance:
Strongly supports reproductive freedom and medical decision-making between patients and doctors, with an emphasis on protecting women’s health and autonomy.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Protect reproductive rights
Oppose bans on medical procedures that could endanger a patient’s life
Ensure mothers have access to healthcare and support
Reproductive Healthcare:
Explicit opposition to abortion bans
Trusts patients and physicians over politicians
Frames reproductive care as a fundamental individual right
Populations Centered:
Women
Pregnant people and families
Patients requiring medically necessary care
Relevant Expertise & Preparation:
Voting record opposing dangerous medical bans while in Congress
Notable Emphasis:
Voting record opposing dangerous medical bans while in Congress
Equity & Representation
Stance:
Emphasizes equal rights and ethical governance, but does not explicitly name marginalized communities beyond women in the provided material.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Protection of individual rights
Opposition to discriminatory or intrusive government policy
Approach:
Rights-based rather than identity-specific framing
Relevant Experience & Expertise:
Rights-based rather than identity-specific framing
Notable Emphasis:
Structural fairness and equal treatment under the law
Economy & Cost of Living
Stance:
Focuses on affordability through regulation, oversight, and consumer protection rather than market deference.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Require justification and approval for insurance rate hikes
Freeze insurance rates during regulatory reform if possible
Increase transparency and accountability in pricing
Cost-of-Living Focus Areas:
Home insurance
Auto insurance
Populations Centered:
Working families
Homeowners and drivers affected by rising insurance costs
Approach to Economic Policy:
Working families
Homeowners and drivers affected by rising insurance costs
Notable Emphasis:
Treats affordability as a governance failure, not an inevitability
Texas Issues
Stance:
Approaches infrastructure and transportation as accountability and efficiency problems rather than purely funding problems.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Reform Texas Transportation Commission appointments
Impose strict conflict-of-interest rules
Require benefit-cost analysis for major infrastructure projects
End ineffective highway-widening practices
Approach to Climate Resilience:
Not explicitly addressed in available materials
Relevant Experience & Expertise:
Federal and municipal governance experience
Port Security Caucus founder, focused on infrastructure and security
Notable Emphasis:
Anti-corruption in infrastructure spending
“No data, no deal” governance standard
Education
Stance
Expresses support for public school students and educators, but provides limited policy detail in available materials.
Accountability, Ethics, & Leadership
Stance:
Makes ethics enforcement and anti-corruption a defining feature of his candidacy and political identity.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Target corruption in government
Enforce ethical standards regardless of party
Prevent regulatory and institutional capture
Approach:
Aggressive oversight
Willingness to confront powerful figures
Relevant Experience & Expertise:
Filed ethics complaint against Tom DeLay in 2004
Broke a long-standing bipartisan silence on congressional corruption
Notable Emphasis:
Proven willingness to challenge entrenched power
Longstanding track record, not rhetorical commitment
Immigration
Stance:
Not addressed in the provided material.
Candidate Qualifications
Stance:
Brings extensive experience in elected office with a demonstrated record of ethics enforcement and legislative action.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Ethical governance
Accountability-first leadership
Rights-based policymaking
Approach:
Data-driven decision-making
Institutional reform over symbolic action
Relevant Experience & Expertise:
Former U.S. Representative (TX-25)
Former Houston City Council member
Founder of bipartisan Port Security Caucus
Notable Emphasis:
Willingness to act when others stayed silent
Experience confronting corruption directly
Scorecard Summary
Our Score: 11.5/34
Limited alignment with TMK-Indivisible Waco's endorsement criteria.
Important Context
This score reflects only the information publicly available on the candidate’s campaign website at the time of review. Several issue areas central to TMK–Indivisible Waco’s endorsement rubric are not addressed in detail on the website: healthcare policy details, immigration policy, climate resilience, working-class focused issues, and Texas-specific infrastructure concerns, among others.
If additional policy information becomes available, this candidate profile and score may be updated accordingly.
Key Positions & Commitments:
Strong and consistent support for reproductive freedom, including opposition to abortion bans that endanger patients.
Clear focus on anti-corruption and ethics, including a documented willingness to confront powerful figures.
Support for public education, including protecting public school students and teachers.
Approach:
Policy-driven and technocratic, with a strong emphasis on governance mechanics, oversight, and accountability.
Frames problems through institutional failure and corruption, rather than ideological language.
Focuses on regulatory reform and enforcement over movement-based or grassroots strategies.
Leans toward pragmatic fixes rather than sweeping structural transformation.
Relevant Experience & Expertise:
Former U.S. Representative with federal legislative experience.
Former Houston City Council member, bringing municipal governance perspective.
Founded a bipartisan Port Security Caucus, showing cross-party coalition-building.
Filed a high-profile ethics complaint against Tom DeLay, demonstrating political independence and personal risk tolerance.
Notable Emphasis:
Ethics and accountability are the throughline of his candidacy.
Strong willingness to challenge entrenched power, even when politically inconvenient.
Less emphasis on equity-centered language or explicitly naming marginalized communities.
